BIOT 355L (Escobar)

Primary vs. Review Articles

In this class, you are required to prepare a lab report to document and summarize the work you have done in BIOT 355. This guide will help you find the sources you need for the draft mini-report that is due in the middle of the semester.

What's Required:

Background related to the major scientific questions/objectives. In this case, you should provide background on cellulases and their application in the production of biofuels/bioethanol. You will need to find appropriate sources (in the primary literature and the review articles or other reputable sources) and provide in-text references for these sources.

Primary vs. Review Articles

So what's the difference between primary and review articles? You'll need some of each for this assignment.

Primary articles (aka "empirical" or "research" articles) will present original research -- the authors of the articles are the same people who conducted the experiements.

Review articles (aka "secondary sources" or "literature reviews") will present summaries of other people's research. The authors of review articles are typically summarizing all of the research on a particular topic or asking a question that can be answered by surveying already-existing literature.

Citing in CSE

Important Note: For BIOT 355, you will be required to follow the Name-Year format in CSE style.

What is CSE Style?

Each discipline uses a different citation style. In Biology, the most commonly used style is CSE. CSE uses three different formats: citation-sequence, citation-name, and name-year -- you will want to check with your professor to see which format they prefer.

Citation-sequence: Citations are included in a numbered list at the end of the paper, in the order in which they appear in the text. Within the text of your paper, use superscript numbers to refer to the corresponding citation in your citation list.

Citation-name: Citations are included in a numbered list at the end of the paper in a numbered list, in alphabetical order by author last name. Within the text of your paper, use superscript numbers to refer to the corresponding citation in your list.

Name-year: Citations are listed at the end of the paper in alphabetical order by author last name, but not numbered. Within the text of your paper, cite sources by using the author's last name followed by the year of publication in parentheses. For example: Jones (2005).